College football bowls: 5 games on the last Saturday ever

1,700.

Once or twice per season, Texas’ track-star receiver would put on a show that would make you wonder why he doesn’t have All-American production. He carried twice for 80 yards and caught two passes for 102 yards against Ole Miss in September. He caught five passes for 129 yards versus Baylor and carried seven times for 97 yards versus Kansas and Texas Tech in 2011. He caught seven passes versus Iowa State and six versus UCLA in 2010. He returned a kickoff for a touchdown against Texas A&M in 2009. But each time, Goodwin would then disappear for a few games at a time.

Texas is not very good on football fields, but fans at its games apparently are. According to multiple Twitter reports, a green-clad fan at the Alamo Bowl broke onto the field, sprinted from one end zone to the other, did his best Desmond Howard, and vanished into the crowd before security could strike.

The reaction from the game at the time:

As expected, it was a defensive battle. In the school’s first year in the Big 12, TCU (7-5) had the top defensive unit. In the first half, TCU kept Michigan State (6-6) from scoring by holding the Spartans to only three first downs and 72 total yards of offense.

MSU, having the top defense in the Big 10, allowed 13 points. In the first quarter, TCU’s Matthew Tucker rushed for a four yard touchdown. The Horned Frogs would be kept out of the end zone the rest of the first half, but Oberkrom hit two field goals in the second quarter to extend TCU’s lead to 13-0 at halftime.

The Texas offense struggled for the better part of the first half and well into the third quarter, as the Beavers built a 20-10 lead before the break. The Longhorns pulled back to within one score after Ash’s 11-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, yet the quarterback tossed an interception on Texas’ next drive to give Oregon State another 10-point lead.

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Instead, the clock kept running, and by the time Vaz spiked it, the half had ended.

When asked by ESPN what happened there, OSU coach Mike Riley said he was told his team had achieved a first down. The box score shows that play as a 4th and 1, however, and the clock was still running either way.

Look through SB Nation’s many excellent college football blogs to find your team’s community.

Look through SB Nation’s many excellent college football blogs to find your team’s community.

This is Oregon State running back Storm Woods’ mother. She’s holding one of those giant posters with Storm Woods face on it. She’s surrounded by family, because Storm Woods is from Texas.

Yep, that’s all. Nothing else going oh my goodness her shirt says LOVE MY BEAVER.

Box Score Hero: Kelly completed all but two of his passes, completing 17 of 19 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns. His production didn’t end there, though, as the quarterback picked up an additional 76 yards and one more touchdown in the rushing game.

But Did They Cover? As the favorites, Arizona State easily covered the 14-point spread against Navy. It happened without any threat of a backdoor cover, despite a few late touchdowns by Navy.

A month ago, Texas coach Mack Brown complained about Horns opponents getting away with tweaking Texas’ traditional Hook ‘Em Horns hand sign. He soooort of had a point, since flags are often throw for, say, doing the chomp while playing against Florida or what have you, but pretty much all it did was encourage opponents to deploy the taunt as often as possible.

Here we have a Pac-12 team throwing a Horns Down sign. That’s Ryan Murphy of Oregon State acting like an Aggie or Sooner or whatever after running back a blocked field goal 38 yards. Excellent form, especially in the wrists.

After his loss, Grice took a few days away from the team. Arizona State coach Todd Graham responded by dedicating the bowl to the memory of Grice’s brother.

Grice entered the game as the Sun Devils’ second-leading rusher, gaining 520 yards on just 89 carries, good for an average of 5.8 yards per rushing attempt. He also leads the team in rushing touchdowns with nine. Grice is a threat in the passing game as well, catching 39 balls for 406 yards and eight touchdowns.

Hey, remember that Russell Athletic Bowl play from Friday, during which Rutgers was awarded a touchdown despite only scoring a safety? Here we nearly had the opposite!

Smith, who really was asked to drop back very far for being so close to the end zone, dropped the ball while being swarmed, but no Orange players were aware the pill was loose. A West Virginia lineman was able to fall on it, saving the ‘Eers five points.

This has been a game with more defense than offense, due in large part to the wintry mix conditions afflicting both high-octane attacks. A surprise either way, considering how good these offenses are (and how non-good these defenses are).

Garvin actually was able to take advantage of Syracuse’s play action, which required Nassib to turn his back to a greater degree than he would’ve on a regular dropback.

There are times that a stiffarm is more than a stiffarm. Some are like playing patty cake -- a way to just keep a defender away. Some are minor push-offs that allow a ballcarrier to keep his momentum.

This is none of those. This stiffarm by Turner Petersen should be illegal. Not in a football sense, though; It should, legitimately, carry an assault charge.

Box Score Hero: Rice wide receiver Jordan Taylor was the main beneficiary of Jackson’s breakout game, catching nine passes for 153 yards and three touchdowns.

But Did They Cover?: Air Force entered the game as a one-point favorite, but didn’t do themselves any favors with a 19-point loss.

If you needed any more reasons (or just a reason) to tune into the Pinstripe Bowl, we’ve got you covered. Sure, Syracuse and West Virginia sounds like a fun matchup, but let’s spice things up. Let’s add weather to the mix.

Not just any weather, though. Snow. Lots of snow.

Armed Forces Bowl, 11:45 a.m. (ET), ESPN

Rice vs. Air Force

1. Flexbone = fun. It just is. And it is even more fun when it is taking apart a big, strong FBS defense. Not saying it will take apart Arizona State, but it might, and you’ll want to watch just in case.

2. Taylor Kelly = fun. He’s got some Brett Favre in him. And not the late-career, prima-donna, cartoon character Favre, but the early, decent-in-the-pocket-but-kills-you-with-improvisation, just-having-fun-like-a-kid-out-there Favre.

Painting the huge yellow emblem on the hill near Arizona State’s stadium has become a tradition of sorts.

Earlier this year, Oregon fans greened it, with ASU fans quickly responding by blacking it out. Sun Devils supporters were then concerned about Arizona doing the same, with a WE MUST DEFEND THIS LETTER Google Doc accidentally going public. A few years ago, it even went purple.

The description of those two players, via the police report:

Those descriptions would come close to those listed for the players being reported by 247 Sports, though McCoy is listed by Texas as being 6’2 and 200 pounds.

1. You like run games, right? Because you’re going to get a lot of it. The spread is the typical underdog offense of choice for a lot of college football, but both of these teams reached six wins with run games both old-school (Air Force’s Flexbone) and new (Rice’s pistol/veer). This game will bring plenty of uniqueness to the table, even if the overall quality is questionable.

3. It kicks off at 10:45 a.m. local time. What else are you going to be watching then?

Really, the Pinstripe Bowl offers you a glimpse at five different ways to play the receiver position. Bailey and Sales are the prototypical downfield threats, Lemon will kill you with slants, Austin gets the ball in space (and typically close to the line of scrimmage) in a multitude of ways, and Woods is the dirty-work guy, taking big hits and making tough catches. Austin’s move to running back in November (he carried 47 times for 495 yards against Oklahoma, Iowa State and Kansas) was both inspired and a season-saver for the Mountaineers, though Bailey’s return to full health after nagging injuries certainly helped, too. Meanwhile, both Sales and Lemon alternated time as Syracuse’s No. 1 guy. Sales caught 28 of 35 passes for 346 yards and five scores versus Northwestern, South Florida and USC, while Lemon caught 38 of 49 passes for 682 yards and five scores versus Minnesota, UConn, Louisville, and Missouri.

No single bowl game features as much receiver potential as this one. Any play that doesn’t utilize one of these five players will feel like a waste of your time.

1. Defense can be fun, too. Like the Russell Athletic Bowl between Rutgers and Virginia Tech, most of this game’s difference-making talent resides on the defensive side of the ball. Yes, low-scoring games can be boring, but these teams have two of the more exciting defenses in the country. TCU’s 4-2-5 is always fast and active, while State’s front seven is enormous and dominant.

2. I’ll go ahead and say it: Michigan State will be the most underrated team in the country in the 2013 preseason. The Spartans were a preseason Big Ten favorite, but a 6-6 season suggests they were an extreme disappointment in 2012. And to an extent, they were. But wow, were they close to something much, much better. State lost five of its six games by a combined 13 points. If this offense is three or four points per game better, the Spartans are possibly 10-2 or 11-1. Of course, State also won three games by one possession, meaning this team was just a couple of steps away from both 3-9 and 11-1. In other words...

1. Oregon State’s offense is unique and entertaining. Here’s what I said about Oregon State in mid-October:

Oregon State is adept at finding what works and wringing out every ounce of advantage from it. Texas has suffered from missed tackles at times in 2012, and if the Longhorns cannot consistently bring Wheaton or (especially) Cooks down near the line of scrimmage, either or both could be targeted up to about 15 times on Saturday. Regardless, Oregon State is tactically exciting, and this is your last chance to watch the Beavers for nine months.

This isn’t the first time Madsen has missed out on the postseason because of issues with his grades; he sat out of the 2010 Champs Sports Bowl as well. He took all but eight snaps for the Mountaineers this season and will end his career two games shy of the school record for games started, held by former center Dan Mozes at 52. Madsen was voted to the All Big-12 second team after the season.

West Virginia has lost two straight to the Orange and, in those games, Syracuse racked up 17 tackles for a loss and nine sacks.